Corn Maze Mania.

The BIG deal of Corn Maze Day seemed to be getting "air" as you were hopping from one bale of hay to another. In order to get these most fabulous of photos, many were taken and the boys would look at them and say "No..let's try it again!". This is Andrew above. SWEETEST of jumps.

Emerson "floating" above bale of hay! Again, what I loved about this day was how much fun they had without electronics, games and their total disinterest in the spendy helicopter rides at this maze. It was OLD TIMEY FUN at its best!

My sister Dawn and Andrew going over photos....

Middle of the maze..are we lost? Have they chosen to go off course?

Making their way. They did a good job with the clue sheet and finding answers. They even learned what Semper Fi means! I've already forgotten as my memory is extremely short these days and those games on Lumosity aren't doing much other than stressing me out! Specifically the math in rain clouds!

Sweet Success! We made it out alive!!

I honestly find this photo pretty and relaxing. I guess I could sit and stare at corn fields all day. Who knew?

Make it out and get mini donuts, rootbeer and rock candy! RARRR!!

LOVE this pic because they're having so much fun! This thing was awesome- even for adults! About 3 feet of corn...that you jump into and run around in. A good workout after donuts and just fun for everyone! I jumped in and fell up to my knees in corns! Even after emptying out my shoes later in the day, I had corn in them for at least a good day or so. Emerson ended up having corn stuck in his pants in a spot in the leg where we could not access. We decided we'd wash them and I told him "Won't it be cool if they come out of the dryer and the corn that's stuck in there comes out as...popcorn?!"

Pandemonium!!

At this point Andrew decided they needed to bury one another IN the corn "up to the neck" and Emerson didn't like that he was getting corn IN his ears!

After about a half hour the boys came back and told me "Feel my feet! The corn makes them really soft! My feet have never felt so soft!" I found it hilarious and random. At this point they had their socks filled with corn and were hitting one another with the socks...

"Hmmm..should I take my shoes and socks off and get the corn pedicure?"

Must have self-shot!!


Hope your Saturday is fabulous! It's KIND of nice here (40 degrees now and sunny versus raining and the other day..snowflakes!) so I put away all of our outdoor items into the garage and took the dead stuff off of my hostas. It seemed to excite Curtis the puppy and he "helped" by gnawing on the plants!

I'm off to eat leftover marble cake that Dawn made for me and Brad!

Have a great weekend!

xo

T

Corn Maze Teaser.

It was a beautiful fall day in Minnesota on Sunday.

I mean, Magical. It's been cold here. Wet. blustery. Yesterday the Gods shined upon us and it was sunny and nearly 70! Can I get a YOW?? Or a WHAT WHAT? So we headed last minute to the Corn Maze!

My sweet nephews Andrew and Emerson yesterday. Don't let the photo fool you! They had fun!  I daresay this photo makes it look like we forced a corn maze visit UPON them. But no.

Andrew and Me. Isn't he cute? At the end of the day he said what a "great Sunday this was!" and the cutest part? Both boys were happy trying to find their way through the corn  maze and jumping around on bales of hay. There was a rock wall, helicopter rides and a bungee jump, but they were both satisfied hanging out doing what I would deem "Old Timey Things." That was fun to see!



I'm off to help fix a rotten caramel apple explosion that happened in our living room but will be back with MORE photos! Always more. So much so that yesterday Andrew said to my sister Dawn "Please! You're not going to take photos like this the whole time, right?"

If you have to use a satellite..isn't this a nice little corner to use it in? I think so. Beauty is where you find it, folks!

Have a great Monday!

xo

T

Become A Sponsor

Just want to throw this out there with the holidays coming up...

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm


This is one of the BEST organizations for sponsoring a child and I've been sponsoring a little boy named Edgar in the Phillippines for the past year and a half. We write letters, I get photos and drawings and nice letters from his mom. She lets me know how they're doing as Edgar is only 8. When we give the family a gift, I get pictures of all of them and his mom Maricar sends detailed lists of what she's able to buy. All of the money you sponsor goes directly to your child and their family. So if you send $100..they will be able to buy necessities, rice, various foods, etc.  Maricar is always buying them toothpaste, soap, rice and then they get some chocolate. Those letters are some of the best moments I have. It's probably kind of selfish, because you, the giver ends up feeling like you get something out of it.

Image via http://blogs.ocfamily.com/is-the-love-letter-no-longer/



I was moved to do this through Shannan at Flower Patch Farmgirl (thanks Girl!) http://flowerpatchfarmgirl.blogspot.com/ and I must say, it has been life altering. Once Brad gets better, we plan to sponsor more kids and we'd like to eventually be able to visit Edgar and his family.

Anyway..just an idea for Christmas. If you don't want to sponsor now, you can always send $20 so all of the kids in the program, sponsored or not, receive a Christmas gift.

Holla With Love!

xo

T

Eating Cakes and Pies

I've been eating junk..for days now. It's got to stop but for the time being, it is NOT. I'm clearly craving something and what I've had, while yummy hasn't seemed to "do it" for me. Suggestions?

I ate this two days ago. Pumpkin pie.

Brad laughed when he realized I took a pic of it. Food choices must be photographed!

He had a piece of peanut butter cup pie. It took him a good day to even take a bite, so I did him the favor of eating the rest of HIS pie just yesterday. To be fair,  I did warn him. Something to the effect of "Brad, this pie is staring at me. If you don't eat it soon, I can't guarantee it will be here."


It was beautiful yesterday! For the first time in weeks, the wind went away. I took the opportunity to take our gazebo down. I must say, I'm much more butch than I give myself credit for. I put all of my irritation and hormonal rage into taking it apart (with a few different screwdrivers) and yelled a few times. It's down. It was therapeutic and I realized: I'm much better at taking things apart than putting them together. What does THAT mean?

Curtis decided to use the beautiful day to catch and kill a mouse near our firepit. Ugh. The good thing about a fenced in yard (that we did not have last year at this time) is that I gave myself the "gift" of not being a part of the mouse thing. I put him in the backyard and went in the house. It's impossible to get him to let go of the mouse, I didn't want to try and pry it out of his mouth and for once, I didn't have to worry about him trying to take it inside, so I left him in the backyard. Ugh. I was able to entice him with a piece of chicken after awhile. He went for the chicken, I picked up the dead (and half eaten) mouse with the dog poop scoop and got rid of it. He then roamed the yard and seemed heartbroken. Oh well. And I didn't let him lick or kiss me for the day.Gross. Gross. I LOVE him, but oh so gross!!

Curtis and Daddy a few days ago. Brad was having a rough day. Curtis had a cool bagel bone to show off.


I'm off to make something out of this frame..

..and make some pasta.

mamma hungry!

I MAY even hit the McD's drive thru for...you guessed it.. a McCone!

Have a Happy Wednesday!

xo

T

Family Pyramid. Costa Rica via Kiki. Teanation ART.

Yep. For reals.

I've been trying to get friends and loved ones to make human pyramids for years now. Until our awesome second generation arrived and aged a bit, no one would do it besides my sister Dawn. And as we all know, two people does not a pyramid make.  Left to right bottom: yours truly, nephew Nick, niece Kirsten. Second row l- r: niece Madison, sister Dawn. Top: Nephew Emerson.  I never had any aunts or uncles who wanted to do this, did any of you? How fun will this be to look back on? Very. I say, very.


Kirsten (above) was in Costa Rica for a month this past summer for college (she will be a teacher after graduation in spring of 2013!) and has some amazing photos that she took:

This architecture bedazzles me. And yes, "bedazzle" seems to be my word for October even though this month has been less THAN bedazzling!

Kirsten a.k.a. Kiki IN Costa Rica. Is she not gorgeous? More importantly, she is kind, generous and very, very smart. Luhs her.

I'm so proud of her because what a scary trip to take alone at a young age! I moved to Arizona when I was 24, but I never left the country on my own to live with strangers for a month.  One day Emerson was talking about how "military guys" are really brave and I said "Well..yes, but bravery is also about doing things even when you're scared. Kiki is in Costa Rica right now and she was scared, but she still went. THAT is bravery, too." He looked at me like I was a bit of a nutjob, but I think it got in there on some level.


Finally..a random photo or piece of art depending upon how you see it. Via Facebook. I can't credit the original post or site as I don't know, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it! I know this is random, but where would I be in my life without random? I'd be unhappy.

I've been lucky enough to reside in....Canada, KKK and Rattlesnakes and Sand.

What more can a girl want?

Happy Monday!

xo

T

Gifts

Happy Saturday, Friends!

It is chilly and wet outside here in Minnesota. Not really a rain, but just a constant mist. It sounds pretty and it was for about 15 minutes while I walked the dogs this morning..but it quickly became wet and chilly. On the positive side..it does finally SMELL like fall. Like crunchy leaves and the best scents nature has to offer. Too often lately it's been crazy windy and then when it calms down..we get the stench of manure from nearby farms. "Good Things"!  One day I had the windows open and closed them due to "that smell is bumming me out, Brad!"

Fall in MN. Image via panoramio.com.

We've had a less than stellar two weeks here. While Brad is recovering from hip surgery, I must admit that pretty much anything that CAN go wrong HAS gone wrong. Our kitchen faucet blew up and so we needed a new one as I need to use that sink daily. My plan was to try and switch it out myself, but I don't have man paws strong enough to  loosen and tighten everything so Brad ended up helping and then doing. Not a good position physically for someone to be in after hip surgery.

Then our downstairs toilet flooded twice. Take a pee, flush the toilet..it floods. We spent one whole day dealing with that and let's just say..leaves you feeling uninspired. Me: "Brad, should we just call a plumber?" Brad: "NO!" So again, another thing he fixed that someone two weeks post op shouldn't be fixing.  Our gazebo top was torn apart by the crazy winds here last week. The garage door stopped opening and shutting for a time. I could have just applied common sense to that one, but instead just started yelling "Of COURSE it stopped working! Why would anything work around here?"

Image via Wikipedia. Can we teach our dogs to do this?!

Both dogs got sick. I don't know what they're getting into but one gets ill and gives it to the other. First Curtis the puppy and then Daisy. So I had a few nights of little to no sleep and diarrhea pick up and then dog vomit. Good times!! Is this what parenting is like?! Then..Brad got ill. Some sort of flu or something. I don't know if the dogs are to blame. Can you get sick from dogs? I don't think we can get them sick as their body temps run higher..but clearly I'm no medical expert and I have learned to stay off of WebMD as it makes me paranoid and prone to yelling "I'm dying!"



Our cute nephew Emerson (fishing in summertime, below) made Brad some very sweet, thoughtful and COOL homemade and handmade/store bought gifts to cheer him up. The next day he sent me a message saying "I made those for you two because I love you." He is nine (and a half! Big deal at this age!) and so kind!

Gift Number One. He told his Mom "Because Uncle Brad likes coffee." Even though I didn't have any surgery, I got a mention and a stick drawing on the cup, too!

He also bought me this Solar outdoor light because "you love butterflies and it's got yellow in it, your favorite color."

Our neighbors brought us dinner one night and homemade cookies that tasted like they had love and goodness in them. Thank god for kind and thoughtful people. It couldn't have happened on a better day as I had no dinner planned, our week was hellish AND as Gretchen gave me the food, I almost cried. But I didn't want to scare her! The lesson: Do something nice. It is generally very appreciated!


Our nephew Andrew (on the right below and pictured with Emerson) also made Brad a huge chinese star out of paper. He said he learned how to do it by watching it on YouTube. He also said in the cutest voice: "I am sorry but I was eating and accidentally got some cheddar cheese on it." I LOL and told him what providence is and that his item now is probably worth MORE with the cheese stain than without!

This drawer of Brad's just makes me laugh! He's got all kinds of treats in there and I was impressed by how organized he is with candy and his Sunday football stash of chips.

I'm off to either run a few errands OR eat a slice of carrot cake and then MAYBE even a little Debbie nutty bar...the world is my oyster. I'm just not sure.

Have a great weekend and please send magically good vibes our way! Thank YOU!

xo

T

Is This Where I'm Headed?

WARNING! Color filled frenzy! I think Brad fears this may be where I'm headed with our door which I told him "could just change color any day now...along with the seasons. One day it's 80 here, the next day it's 40! Summer, Winter! And so goes the door..maybe?"

Image via Pinterest. No, I didn't pin it. ;-)






Now to something completely UNRELATED because that's how I seem to roll nowadays...saw this.. also on Pinterest and thought "Yes, I am headed here as I just don't care as much as I used to."  Also..she looks FINE obviously...but our obsession with thin just never quits, does it? I have gained ten pounds in the past year that just doesn't seem to budge. I told my b/f/f "I should care at least a bit, but I just keep buying bigger pants OR letting the waist out a bit on my yoga pants. Is that wrong?"

 Image via Pinterest





Bought a pair of boots similar to these last week and I must tell all of you: They have CHANGED my life! They work well for those fabulous 40 degree, windy and bitter days "all that Minnesota has to OFFER!"..and I can keep up with the puppy who gets a bit overzealous on his walks. He's only 32 pounds, but just broke yet another leash from Amazon "for your toughest pullers...good for dogs up to 60 pounds." ?? It snapped yesterday in our front yard just as I was about to walk both dogs and I yelled "Amazon! You damned bastards!"  Let it be known, I had only had three hours of sleep as Curtis the puppy was ill all night Friday. Good times. He seems to be fine now and it was clearly something he got into outside. Ugh. 3AM poop clean ups are just NO good. I digress. Here are the boots and I chose black although everyone voted for brown and I'm sure you were all right:

Image via Pinterest






This looks absolutely delightful, does it not? I bought two bottles of red wine last night and liquor stores are closed here in MN on Sundays..which is fine. I saw some cider with alcohol at the store yesterday and thought "Uh, no..too sugary" and now I think it was a big mistake!

Image via Pinterest





Apparently I could be headed here! On the road to Punkin Chunkin! I bought MORE pumpkins this past week! Finally found some white ones. I felt like Martha Stewart! Is that sad? I also bought some black glue glitter. If I make anything fabulous or unfortunate, please know it shall be SHARED! For now, I think I may do a chevron pumpkin this year!

Image via Pinterest





Although they are spoiled and the pickiest of eaters lately..I feel like making the dogs some cute dog approved cupcakes like this! The cuteness of this dog with these cakes is almost too much!

Image via...you guessed it! Pinterest! How did we live before Pinterest? Perusing old magazines like "back in the old time days"..as Emerson would say!





This below image almost stopped my heart today AND feels like it's clogging my arteries as I stare at it!  I am a huge LOVER of Twinkies! Toxic, non-food "treats"! Holy Bedazzle! Thank you, Paula Deen! You have my heart! Wrong on so many levels, yet so right!

Image via my friend Paula Deen..gotcha! Pinterest!


Rock this Sunday, Kids!! I only know for sure that for me some sort of Sunday treat is involved as here "Sunday is Funday!"..I do believe Bradders has requested mexican food from our friends at El Toro or is it Pollo Toro in Monticello? Who knows? I'm not sure how the whole calling/ordering to-go will work as no one there speaks any english and my spanish is spotty at best. Wish me luck!

xoxo

T

Odd and Ends.

..And we're back!!

Just returned from physical therapy awhile ago. Grabbed Chipotle on the way home, ate that, a few tiny Mr. Goodbars and one dark chocolate bar "for health!" and I'm good to go until...six?

Did a glass of red wine in the afternoon ever hurt anyone? Just one? I think not.



As promised, my Junk Bonanza vintage box that smells..well.. vintage!

I do love it though...and I bought little tags that say things like "kiss" and "groom" and "love" and "&". The kiss one works here...and the others? who knows. I always say if you really love something, you'll eventually find a home for it. Like next to your hubby's toothbrush or something. Ha! As if Brad would even find that cute. "Hey Brad! Did you see the "Groom" tag by the toothpaste today? Darling, huh?"




Our son Curtis, age 1 1/2 sits up like this a lot lately. It is DARLING. I think it's the half doxie in him. I never know exactly what he wants when he does it, so we do various things: Sometimes he gets a hug, a kiss, or an impromptu little dance!

Below..the YELLA door!  I think I mentioned the fall wreath really "grounded" the intense yellow? I think the "W" for Weaver does as well:

Now onto some fall and Halloween decorating here! I've been kind of crazy with it, or so my b/f/f tells me. I just find it cozy and summer's end always makes me a bit sad. Minnesota winters are harsh. I'm trying to progress "happily"

The bottom is my outdoor and homemade homage/nod to Halloween. Old lattice scrap from deck build, painted black.  Tied on some of our deadened hydrangeas and voila! I love it. I normally don't do dead flowers due to feng shui paranoia, but I figure fall is the time for it!

My God, look at the cuteness of her! It almost hurts! As always, she demands fashion forward kerchiefs for each season! She says she's a "fall" as far as color types go!

Curtis too! Kerchief in fall color scheme, Peanuts style! They are both adorable and keep me young! They also stress me out with  not eating, eating crickets and dead frogs (Curtis below!) and Daisy becomes enraged after about 8pm..NO TOUCHING or admission of the fact that she exists!  Curtis and his excitement for everything is the cutest! 

I'm off to eat something...and maybe go for a quick walk before dinner. It's beautiful here but that is supposed to change in the next 72 hours. Damned you, Wolf Blitzer!

Have a beautiful evening!

xo

T